A few years ago, together with the Biebrza National Park and the Łomża Landscape Park of the Narew Valley, we started studying white storks. The aim is to assess the effectiveness of restoring young animals that were brought to rehabilitation centers for wild animals to nature. This year we put transmitters on 4 birds. One of them flew over the Bosporus Strait yesterday!
So far, the results were not encouraging. Until now, the longest journey of one of the birds ended on the border of Bulgaria and Turkey. The bird was killed on a medium voltage line. This is the most common cause of death of young storks during migration. Not being killed in Syria or Lebanon. As a result of a fatal electric shock 8 out of 10 young storks will die in their first year. Almost all in Europe.
Simple methods of power grid security can change this. PTOP has developed a method that is fast and cheap. More and more poles are being properly secured. But it is still a drop in the ocean of needs. The whole migration route requires securing. We have this in mind. We hope to write about it one day
